For many years, information technology (IT) organizations (the “providers”) have offered IT management services and computing resources to other business entities (the “customers”). In a “traditional” service model, the customers share a provider's management services, but each customer purchases or leases specific resources for the customer's exclusive benefit. The customer may purchase or lease the resources directly from the provider or from a third party. Regardless of their origins, though, such a purchase or lease may require extensive, time-consuming negotiations based upon the customer's anticipated requirements. If the customer's requirements are less than anticipated, then the customer effectively has wasted resources. If, however, the customer's requirements are greater than anticipated, then the customer may have to enter into additional time-consuming negotiations for the necessary resources.
Alternatives to the traditional service model, though, are able to anticipate and meet customers' processing needs as their requirements grow, while maximizing existing resources. One such alternative, pioneered by International Business Machines Corporation, allows a service provider to allocate resources to customers “on-demand” as the customers' needs change. In this on-demand service model, customers share computing and networking resources. In one implementation of the on-demand model, a service provider creates “logical” partitions of computing resources on primary processing units (commonly known as “mainframe” computers). Typically, an on-demand service provider contracts with several customers to provide a certain level of service to each customer, and creates a logical partition (LPAR) of resources for each customer to fulfill its obligations. Unlike traditional service contracts, an on-demand service contract generally requires that the customer be billed only for resources actually used, and for fixed costs not directly related to usage (such as labor costs incurred in support of the contract).
Generally, the on-demand provider delivers services based upon a contract that allows a variance of utilization. The provider delivers the requested services without regard to the physical resources used to provide those services. The customer does not purchase or lease the physical resources; instead, the provider retains the discretion to allocate the resources to logical partitions as needed to meet its service obligations. Typically, the provider establishes threshold levels of service that guide dynamic allocation of resources. Although on-demand customers may share a provider's services and computing resources, the provider generally must segregate and protect each customer's data.
In an on-demand data center, software is shared, simultaneously serving multiple customers in a flexible, automated fashion. The software is standardized, requiring little customization, and it is scalable, providing capacity on demand in a pay-as-you-go model. The software can be stored on a shared file system accessible from one or more servers. The software is executed via transactions that contain data and server processing requests that use processing resources on the accessed server. The accessed server also may make requests of other servers that require the use of processing resources. The use or consumption of processing resources is measured in units of time such as minutes, seconds, or hours. A CPU is one example of a processing resource, but other resources that may be consumed and measured include (but are not limited to) network bandwidth, memory, storage, packet transfers, complete transactions, etc.
In order to create service contracts efficiently, automated engagement tools may be utilized. For example, International Business Machines Corporation uses the Solution Advisor Global Edition (SAGE) as an engagement tool. International Business Machines On Demand offerings are standardized for all on demand engagements which makes cost calculations for the service engagement rapid and accurate. Delivery plan templates can be used in order to further reduce the time and costs for the engagement. But these delivery templates address on going operations. In order to provide services in an on-demand environment, the service provider must first transition the customer from the customer's old IT environment to the on-demand environment. As used herein, transition means defining the resources to be applied to the customer's need for a service contract, placing the customer's data and resources in operation, and getting the customer to operate routinely within the on demand environment. Moreover, as used herein, the term transition may mean setting up a new customer (boarding) or adding services to an existing customer.
In order to efficiently effect a customer transition, an accurate estimate of the cost, in hours, to effect the transition must be calculated. To create the accurate estimate, service providers rely upon subject matter experts (SME). SMEs are persons familiar with the specific tasks to be accomplished and who can provide an accurate estimate for the tasks for which that person has expertise. Tasks are enumerated, and then SMEs are consulted in order to create the estimates. The process can take several days, and quality assurance reviews can add additional time. Therefore, calculation of the cost in hours to set up (board) a new customer or to add additional services to an existing customer in the on demand environment can be time consuming and costly. A need exists for an improved transition costing process that can be accomplished in hours instead of days. The estimation process would be improved by standardization, if such standardization were subjected to quality control and feedback for accuracy.